Twenty months ago, Holy Family University officials posted a six-minute video to YouTube depicting a grand vision for the former Liddonfield public housing project. To date, nary a shovel of dirt has been turned on the barren, 33-acre, publicly owned tract at Torresdale Avenue and Megargee Street.

The Greater Northeast Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce last week held a reception at Torresdale-Frankford Country Club for Sister Francesca Onley, who is retiring as president of Holy Family University. Sister Francesca became the school’s fourth president in 1981, and she has overseen much physical growth of the institution. She also led Holy Family’s transition from college to university status in 2002.

The Northeast Philadelphia Hall of Fame last week announced its 2014 inductees. The newest inductees will be Stephen Decatur, Virginia Knauer, Pat Worthington Stopper, Chris Matthews and the Jewish Community Center Klein Branch. The announcement was made during a May 8 news conference at Holy Family University by Sister Francesca Onley, president of Holy Family, and City Councilman Dennis O’Brien.

Last week, Upper Holmesburg Civic president assured concerned neighbors that the Holy Family development is still on track.

Upper Holmesburg residents rejoiced in July 2012 when the Philadelphia Housing Authority board endorsed a plan to transform the former Liddonfield public housing project into a new athletic campus for Holy Family University. Yet, the site looks no different today than it did back then.

A New Jersey firefighter, whose son is a Holy Family University student and also a firefighter, recently received an honorary doctor of humane letters degree from the Northeast school during graduation ceremonies.

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Onley said that when developers approached the university in 2012 to propose the project, she was told that Holy Family would not have to provide cash for the land acquisition and that the developers would build the athletic fields with revenue from the senior citizen housing component of the project.